Electrolytic cell having means for supporting the electrodes on the cell wall and means for shorting out the electrodes

ABSTRACT

An electrolytic cell for metal salts improved in contact resistance between electrode and electric conductor and in contact between electric conductors provided on an upper face of a cell wall and an electric conductors for shorting them when the former conductor are shorted for taking out the electrodes.

United States Patent [1 1 [111 3,929,614

Hidohira [451 Dec. 30, 1975 [54] ELECTROLYTIC CELL HAVING MEANS 3,579,431 5/1971 Jasberg 204/281 FOR SUPPORTING THE ELECTRODES ON THE CELL WALL AND MEANS FOR SHORTING OUT THE ELECTRODES Yoshihumi Hidohira, Takehara, Japan Mitsui Mining & Smelting Co., Ltd., Japan Filed: Feb. 19, 1974 Appl. No.: 443,635

Inventor:

Assignee:

US. Cl. 204/242; 204/267; 204/286; 204/297 R Int. Cl. C25C 7/00 Field of Search 204/242, 267, 279, 286, 204/297 R References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1918 Gillis 204/279 9 I I I v. I I f I I l I FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 37-14201 9/1962 Japan 204/267 Primary Examiner-l-loward S. Williams Assistant ExaminerW. 1. Solomon Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Armstrong, Nikaido & Wegner [57] ABSTRACT An electrolytic cell for metal salts improved in contact resistance between electrode and electric conductor and in contact between electric conductors provided on an upper face of a cell wall and an electric conductors for shorting them when the former conductor are shorted for taking out the electrodes.

3 Claims, 18 Drawing Figures Patent Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 1 of5 3 929,614

1"" um u Inn! 11m Illll 1 um I US. Patent Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 2 of5 3,929,614

US, Patent Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 3 of5 3,929,614

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PRIOR ART PRIOR ART I 1 |2|| US. Patfint Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 5 of5 3,929,614

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PRIOR ART ELECTROLYTIC CELL HAVING MEANS FOR SUPPORTING THE ELECTRODES ON THE CELL WALL AND MEANS FOR SHORTING OUT THE ELECTRODES The present invention relates to improvements in the conventional electrolytic cell for metal salts. The improvements reside in that the cell has small contact resistance between electrode and electric conductor and has no possibility of causing unsatisfactory contact between electric conductors provided on an upper face of a cell wall and an electric conductor for shorting them when the former electric conductors are to be shorted for taking out the electrodes.

The first characteristic of the present invention resides in that a peak-shaped or circular cross section projecting portions on which shoulder portions of the electrodes are hung are provided on both side portions of an electric conductor on an upper face of a cell wall and an insulating layer is provided on the center part of said conductors at a fixed distance from both of said projecting portions in such a manner that the height of the insulating layer is higher than that of the projecting portions whereby the projecting portions can be continuously polished, undesired contact between electrodes can be prevented and contact resistance can be decreased.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 14201 /62 discloses that shoulder portions of electrodes are hung on projecting conductor portions formed at the side portions on the upper surface of a conductor. However, in such an electrolytic cell of the prior art, since the height of the insulating layer is the same as that of the conductor portions and the surface of the conductor portions is plane, electrodes are apt to move to cause contact between the electrodes of both sides of the cell wall, contact resistance between the electrode and the conductor portions is high and moreover the conductor portions cannot be continuously polished.

The above mentioned defects of the prior art can be eliminated by the first characteristic of the present invention. That is, since the projecting portion on which the shoulders of electrodes are hung are in peakshape or circular shape, the electrode can closely engage with the conductor portions and contact resistance can be decreased. Since the height of the insulating layer is higher than that of the projecting portion, even if the electrodes move in the direction of the axis, they do not contact with the opposite electrodes. Furthermore, since the insulating layer is located at a distance from the projecting portions and is in a continuous form, the projecting portion can be continuously polished. These are the excellent effects of the present invention.

The first characteristic of the present invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of construction of the conductor and insulating layer in the cell of the present invention, in which 1 is an electric conductor, peakshaped projecting portion 2 are provided at both side portions on the surface of the conductor 1, insulating layer 3 is provided at a distance of S from the projecting portion and the height of the projecting portion 2 is lower by t than that of insulating layer 3. The distance S is preferably about 20 mm and t is preferably longer than 3 mm.

glass 6. 7 and 8 show anode plates and cathode plates,

respectively.

FIGS. 4 6 are the same as FIGS. 1 3,'respectively, except that insulating layers 3' are provided as alternate layers. In this embodiment, projecting portion 2 may be provided at only one side. This embodiment can result in additional effect that even if the electrodes move in the direction perpendicular to axis, the adjacent electrodes do not contact eath other.

The second characteristic of the present invention is that a flat shorting electric conductor is fixed in a vertical plane at the ends of electric conductors provided on the electrolytic cell wall whereby close contact between the shorting electric conductor and the electric conductor on the cell wall can be attained and moreover safety for the workers can be assured.

In general, after operation of an electrolytic cell for some days, electrode plates are taken out at a time, in order to electrically connect the adjacent cells, the electric conductors of these two cells are shorted with another electric conductor. In this respect, explanation will be given with reference to FIG. 7. That is, in the case of taking out electrode plates 10 in electrolytic cell A, shorting electric conductor 12 is connected to large-sized electric conductors 11 to directly pass the current to electrolytic cell B not through the electrolytic cell A.

In such a case, conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 the ends of the large-sized electric conductor 11' are considerably extended from the side faces of cell A and the end of a flat shorting electric conductor 12' is placed in a horizontal plane on said extended ends and both ends are fixed by a clamp vice V. In this case, however, the middle part of said shorting conductor l2 hungs down due to its own weight. This causes unsatisfactory contact between conductors l 1 and 12 and moreover necessitates considerable extension of both ends of large-sized conductor 11 from the cell, which detracts from safety of workers.

These defects are eliminated by keeping the conductor 12 for shorting the large-sized conductors in a vertical plane in accordance with the present invention.

The second characteristic of the present invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of one embodiment of the present electrolytic cell in which 10 is electrodes, 11 are large-sized electric conductors, 12 is a shorting electric conductor, and 13 is normal-sized electric conductors and A and B show adjacent electrolytic cells.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors l1 and 12, namely, a vertically bent end portion of the large-sized conductor 11 and the shorting conductor 12 in a vertical plane is connected with bolt 14.

FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors 11 and 12, namely, shorting conductor 12 in a vertical plane is inserted in groove 15 formed by bending the end portion of large-sized conductor 11.

FIG. shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors l1 and 12, namely, electrically conductive L-shaped connector 16 is fixed at the end portion of large-sized conductor 11 with bolt 14 and shorting conductor 12 in a vertical plane is fixed to the connector 16 with bolt 14.

FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors 11 and 12, namely, electrically conductive connector 16 having groove is fixed to the end portion of large-sized conductor 11 with bolt 14 and shorting conductor 12 in a vertical plane is inserted in said groove 15.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of connection of conductors l1 and 12, namely, electrically conductive E -shaped connector 16' is fixed to large-sized conductor 11 with bolt 14 and two shorting conductors 12 in a vertical plane are fixed to the back side and inner and upper part of the connector 16' with bolts 14.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors 11 and 12, namely, electrically conductive connector 16 is fixed to the end portion of large-sized conductor 1 l with bolt 14 and two shdrting conductors 12 held in a vertical plane are inserted in grooves 15 formed in the bottom and the projection of the connector, respectively.

FIG. 14 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors 11 and 12, namely, electrically conductive connector 16 having a vertical riser in its middle portion is fixed to the end portion of a large-sized conductor 11 with bolt 14 and two shorting conductors 12 in a vertical plane are fixed to both sides of said riser with bolt 14.

FIG. 15 shows an embodiment of the connection of conductors l1 and 12, namely, electrically conductive ill-shaped connector 16 is fixed to the end portion of large-sized conductor 11 with bolt 14 and two shorting conductors 12 are inserted in grooves 15 of said connector.

FIGS. 16 and 17 show the conventional connection of a large-sized conductors and a shorting conductor.

Employment of such a shorting conductor kept in a vertical plane can provide additional effect in that the electrolytic cell for metal salts can be made of largesized. In other words, in such a large-sized electrolytic cell, the electric conductor for shortingmust be largesized when a high current such as 15000 Amp. is used and therefore, such'shorting conductor kept in a vertical plane is effective and manual one cannot be used.

FIG. 18 shows construction of the conventional electrolytic cell for metal salts in which 7 and 8 are anodes and cathodes, respectively.

The conventional electrolytic cell used in the present invention, for example, has a cell which is made of prefabricated concrete, has P.V.C. or asphalt inner linings and hasa size of 2 5 m in length, 0.7 1.3 In in width and l 1.5 m in depth, which contains 20 42 sheets of flat plate type electrodes produced by molding crude lead as anodes and 21 43 sheets of electrodes produced by molding pure lead as cathodes and which contains, as an electrolyte, an aqueous solution of lead fluosilicate and hydrofluosilicic acid. The construction of such electrolytic cell is shown in FIG. 18.

I claim:

1. In a metal salt electrolytic cell, the improvement being in that peak-shapedor circular projecting portions on which shoulder portions of the electrodes are hung are provided on both side portions of the electric conductors on the upper face of their cell wall and an insulating material is provided between said projecting portions at a distance from both projecting portions in such a manner that height of said insulating material is higher than that of the projecting portions and that one or more conductors for shorting the said conductors on the cell wall when electrodes are taken out are fixed in a vertical plane at the ends of the said conductors ondirection of and contact alternating electrodes. 

1. IN A METAL SALT ELECTROLYTIC CELL, THE IMPROVEMENT BEING IN THAT PEAK-SHAPED OR CIRCULAR PROJECTING PORTIONS ON WHICH SHOULDER PORTIONS OF THE ELECTRODES ARE HUNG ARE PROVIDED ON BOTH SIDE PORTIONS OF THE ELECTRIC CONDUCTORS ON THE UPPER FACE OF THEIR CELL WALL AND AN INSULATING MATERIAL IS PROVIDED BETWEEN SAID PROJECTING PORTIONS AT A DISTANCE FROM BOTH PROJECTING PORTIONS IN SUCH A MANNER THAT HEIGHT OF SAID INSULATING MATERIAL IS HIGHER THAN THAT OF THE PROJECTING PORTIONS AND THAT ONE OR MORE CONDUCTORS FOR SHORTING THE SAID CONDUCTORS ON THE CELL WALL WHEN ELECTRODES ARE TAKEN OUT ARE FIXED IN A VERTICAL PLATE AT THE ENDS OF THE SAID CONDUCTORS ON THE CELL WALL.
 2. An electrolytic cell according to claim 1, wherein two conductors for shorting are used.
 3. An electrolytic cell according to claim 1 wherein said insulating material is disposed in zig-zag manner along the axis of said conductor so as to project in the direction of and contact alternating electrodes. 